Help me Spec out an entire HT system.. (1 Viewer)

[TravisMc]

Well, this is completely theoretical, however, I do intend on applying a LOT of your advise in the future

Over the next three years, I Intend to build a 25K-35K HT system

Assume the room the HT will be located in is 35x25, Wood floor

Now

I need ideas as to which items are the MOST important to least important, as, that will be the order im going to buy this stuff in over the next four years or so

Assume I own NO audio equipment, and will have to buy, everything

Also, any kind of room treatment advice is also appreciated

Generally, correct me if im wrong, but, wouldent the order to purchase stuff be sort of like the following?

Mains, Center, Sub, Surrounds

And, as far as audio equip

TV, Receiver, DVD/SACD, AMP

Thats what Im thinking, and keep in mind, my budget will be around $25,000 to $35,000 over the next three years on nothing but AV equipment, Room treatments, Room itself, etc, is seperate

 

[Geoff S]

Travis,

Are you planning to build a dedicated Home Theater, or a home theater set in another room of your house such as your living room? Are you planning on doing any room construction etc?

Knowing this can help us determine what you may need, but since you say you have a room set aside for it I assume that there will be no construction needing to be done and your entire budget can go for equipment. Only thing i will say for the room you have is it'd be nice if you have carpet instead of wood floors. Also if it is a dedicated home Theater, as in, that room is for home theater and nothing else, you might want to go ahead and acoustically insulate the walls, cieling, and possibly carpet the walls to make a dead room with no slap echos, and to keep the sound in just that one room.

The most important stuff is simply: Audio/video/Source. Then you can think about things like seating and extras in the room.

These are things that you need research, recomendations, and demos on the equipment.

Audio can simply be a receiver with either a 5.1 or 6.1 setup (mains, center, sub(s), surrounds, EX/ES surround(s)). From there you can provide additional amps for more speaker power, or additional subs, EQs etc.

Video has a full range (from simple TVs, to plasma screens to Projectors). For a room this size and your budget you'll want a Front CRT Projector with screen which will also need a good line multiplier.
And Source, which can be any or all of the following: DVD player, SVHS VCR, Satelitte Dish / HDTV receiver, LaserDisc, A HDCD capable CD Player, DVD Audio, SACD. Nowadays the DVD is the must, and you can get one that can do DVD Audio, SACD and HDCD all in one unit if you don't want to mess with separates.

And of course you'll need the best cables to interconnect it all. I'd recomend Bettercables.com for these, or some Monster cable, but only the MC with high reviews cause a lot of it is junk.

Since this is a broad question I can only give a broad answer, so you'll need to start researching this piece by piece, and the HTF can answer any indivisual question you have about specific parts, give you other websites pertaining to home theater, and equipment reviews etc. Have fun!

 

[Michael Lomker]

I agree that a wood floor seems like a bad idea...the sound reflections would be difficult to control.

The first thing I'd do is to build the room and get it acoustically treated. Geoff provided some good advice in that area. You should read the theater construction boards here and on avsforum to get some ideas.

If I were you, I'd take a look at a used 9" CRT like one of the Barco's. I'm jealous, though...I wish I had a room for one of those!

You'll undoubtedly want to look at (used) amps/processors such as those from Lexicon and Theta. My choice would be the Lexicon MC-12 with an LX-7 amp. You should plan on a 7.1 sound system if you are buying equipment in that league.